BT announces Race to Infinity superfast broadband contest winners

The Race to Infinity competition that was set up by BT for communities to appeal for super-fast broadband in their areas has come to its conclusion, with six winners being announced rather than the five originally planned.

More than 360,000 votes were cast in the 3-month contest and the winning locations are:

- Baschurch, Shropshire

- Blewbury, Oxfordshire

- Caxton, Cambridgeshire

- Innerleithen, Scottish Borders

- Madingley, Cambridgeshire

- Whitchurch, Hampshire

Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT Retail, said: "The Race to Infinity really captured people’s imagination. We’ve been so impressed by the passion and commitment of the people who signed-up to campaign for their areas up and down the country".

"They’ve done a brilliant job and we’d like to thank them for their time and dedication and of course all the thousands of people all over the UK who have voted".

"Congratulations to the winners and commiserations to those who haven’t been successful, but all their efforts haven’t been in vain because their votes will help influence our plans in the future".

Chris Whatmore, one of the campaign co-ordinators for the Blewbury exchange in Oxfordshire, said: "Everyone in our five local villages deserves a pat on the back. The highlights for me have been working with some great people, getting a vote from our oldest resident, who’s 101, and leaping into the number one position the moment we hit 1,000 votes".

BT Infinity fibre optic broadband can provide download speeds of up to 40Mb and upload speeds of up to 10Mb. The telecom giant is also pledging to invest £2.5 billion to deliver super-fast fibre broadband to two thirds of the UK by 2015.

It is also planning 1Gb broadband in Kesgrave, Suffolk, and is including up to 40 rural market towns in the next phase of its super-fast fibre broadband roll-out.